Robots could boost manufacturing: CSIRO

Robots have been identified as a potential saviour of Australia's battered manufacturing industry.

A CSIRO white paper to be launched on Wednesday confirms the dramatic decline of manufacturing over the past 12 years, with predictions of another 85,000 jobs to go by 2018.

An analysis of four key sectors - mining, construction, financial services and manufacturing - shows manufacturing went from the highest contributor to gross domestic product in 2000 to the lowest in 2012.

It now contributes four per cent less to GDP than in 2000, while the other three sectors saw rises of up to three per cent.

"The (manufacturing) sector lost more than 100,000 jobs from 2008 to 2012, and is expected to lose another 85,000 in five years," the paper says, citing Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations figures.

But the CSIRO says robots may be one way to revitalise the industry.

And its report insists that high-tech machines will assist workers - not replace them.